ABOUT GORGES, THE SALARY CAP AND CANADIENS CHEMISTRY

Last week Josh Gorges signed a one year contract and Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier settled most of his coaching vacancies. Now Gauthier can think of heading for the summer cottage for a month or so.

Gauthier’s summer included twenty-six separate NHL and minor league transactions plus the NHL entry draft. (You can see the chronological transaction list below)

If the Canadiens elect to carry twenty-three players as they traditionally have, there are two open spots on the roster and 5.179 million dollars in available cap space. Members of the Hamilton Bulldogs are likely to get the first shot. If it;’s decided that there’s no one quite NHL ready, Gauthier has room to go out and find something on the market. With teams in salary cap trouble, there will be plenty of those available. It’s under those circumstances that Bob Gainey was able to land Robert Lang three years ago.

……..Are the Canadiens a better hockey team than they were at the end of last season? Without Andrei Markov, Josh Gorges and Max Pacioretty they still managed to finish eights points ahead of their total for the previous season, Growing a hockey club is incremental. The main building blocks have to be in place and the free-agent market then fills the gaps. The last two seasons, following the Bob Gainey rebuild, size has been a problem and a lack of third line scoring. Part of that has been solved with the signing of right winger Erik Cole. Pierre Gauthier says he’s comfortable with his team heading into training camp. He has depth in the farm system which served the team well last season when injuries started to pile up. So, has the team been improved? Seems like it to me.

…….. Josh Gorges didn’t get the long term Canadiens contract he was looking for. There are a number of factors that prevented the two sides from coming to an agreement. First, and probably foremost, was the question of his ability to come back from his major January knee surgery. The Canadiens had already risked a great deal in signing Andrei Markov to a three year contract and probably felt they should take a wait-and-see stance regarding Gorges. Secondly – the money factor. Is Gorges really worth much more than the 2.5 million he’ll receive in the coming season. Gorges is not big. His skating will never remind anyone of Bobby Orr and his offensive ability is next to nil. But, he’s a top-four defenceman and brings all of those Hal Gill-type intangibles to the Bell Centre every night. Last month, Gill signed for 2.25 million dollars. The third issue is the farm system. In the next three or four years there will be a steady stream of defencemen coming through the pipeline starting with Hamilton’s Brendan Nash and Frederic St. Denis plus the rookies Alexei Yemelin and Raphael Diaz. Of course, after due diligence, Pierre Gauthier could pick up negotiations on a long-term contract at any time.

…..There are a lot of factors that go into the decision-making process in the Canadiens front office. It’s clear one of the most prominent among them is how a player fits into team chemistry. In the last five years we’ve seen the Canadiens simply unload Mike Ribeiro, Jose Theodore, Mikael Grabosvski, Georges Laraque, Sergei Kostitsyn and now, Benoit Pouliot. All had one thing in common. Each, for one reason or another, had a negative influence in the team’s dressing room. If there is one quality the Canadiens have that sets them apart is their cohesiveness. I’m sure there are disagreements but they invariably are settled within the group. We can credit the leadership of Gionta, Gill, Gorges, Cammalleri and a few others for being the glue behind the tightest-knit team since the Canadiens last Stanley Cup winner eighteen years ago.

Quote of the Week – “Staying on the horse.” Carey Price when asked by the Quesnel-Cariboo Observer about which part of his rodeo roping skills has improved the most over the last three years.

The Canadiens off-season chronology

April 27 – Canadiens lost to the Bruins in game seven of the Eastern quarterfinal.

April 28 – Forward Ryan White assigned to the Hamilton Bulldogs.

May 13 – Swiss defenceman Raphael Diaz signed to a one-year two-way contract.